Video Game / Legendary: The Box

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Legendary: The Box is a 2008 FPS made by Spark Unlimited and published by Gamecock Media Group. The game puts you in the role of Charles Deckard, who is hired by the mysterious Orlando LeFey to steal Pandora's Box. Unfortunately, Deckard opens it instead, releasing horrible monsters. He and his partner, Vivian Kane, must get rid of the creatures and take down LeFey.

Legendary's main selling point was pitting modern weapons against mythical monsters. However, the game was met with mostly poor reviews.

"Legendary: The Tropes":

A.K.A.-47: Used with most the real weapons. For example, the UMP is now an SMP. The Desert Eagle and the M249 SAW have their correct names, though.

Artificial Brilliance: The werewolves in the game are pretty smart, and will attack you from all directions and occasionally use squad tactics if there are a pack of wolves trying to shred you to pieces (for example, using one werewolf to distract you while the other sneaks up on you).

Artificial Stupidity: The human allies and enemies aren't too bright in this game. It can get especially annoying when you see one of your allies toss a Molotov from behind cover, and have the Molotov explode on said cover.

Boom, Headshot: A necessity for fighting werewolves, who will otherwise heal and get back in the fight if you don't.

Boss Vulnerability: The Golem is completely invulnerable for most of the game. A part of the plot revolves around finding a way to destroy it with EMP.

Bullfight Boss: The Minotaur is nearly invincible on the front side, so the best way to deal with it is to have it charge at you, dodge the charge, and unload onto its backside. Unlike most examples of this trope, the Minotaur turns around extremely quickly, so shooting it in the back after a charge is actually quite difficult. Fortunately, there are other ways to damage them, including explosives and the flamethrower.

Enemy Chatter: You can listen to a conversation between two Black Order members capturing a werewolf, and one taunting the werewolf. In fact, there's an achievement for it. For extra fun, shoot the lock off the cage while he's taunting the werewolf.

Energy Absorption: You can absorb the Animus Energy clouds that you see either floating in the world or result from killing monsters, and you can use the energy to heal or release a burst of energy that flings objects and monsters back, stunning them for a little while.

Game-Breaking Bug: In the PC version, the elevator that leads to the final battle will pass right through the player's body, causing them to fall through the floor and die. If you're affected by the bug, it will happen every time you try to play that section, and is impossible to get around without significant messing around with the game's .ini files. Publisher Gamecock's response? "Buy another computer, because we aren't fixing this."

Gorn: Werewolves do some pretty brutal stuff when they get a hold of people.

Hand Cannon: One of the weapons in the game is the infamous Desert Eagle. Justified as the Desert Eagle is mainly used for taking out the various monsters (including werewolves, minotaurs, and griffons) you encounter, and one of the Desert Eagle's real life applications is hunting rather large game.

Deckard even uses the trope name in his PDA entry of the Desert Eagle: "Definition of the phrase 'hand cannon'..."

Help Face Turn: Vivian doesn't give a damn about the Council's agenda, and actually fully expects to betray or be betrayed by them at some point down the line. She's only working with them for two reasons; revenge on LeFey for his You Have Outlived Your Usefulness betrayal of her, and the pragmatic fact she doesn't want to be eaten by monsters.

Heroic Mime: Charles Deckard never speaks, aside from grunts when he is hit.

Incredibly Lame Pun: One of the achievement names is "DouBull TrouBull", which you get after beating two Minotaurs. Lampshaded by a secret achievement that you get immediately after you get the former achievement called "I owe you an apology", where the lead designer apologizes for making such a lame pun.

Informed Ability: Charles Deckard was initially hired as an art thief, yet you never actually get to steal art in the game. The only part of the game that relates to his art thieving ability is his ability to hack through various control panels.

Might be justified as no one in the game hires you to steal any art after you accidentally open Pandora's Box.

Just Between You and Me: Subverted when Vivian asks LeFey why he wanted her and Deckard killed, and LeFey simply replies that since he didn't tell Vivian his full plan when they hired Deckard, why would he tell it to her now.

Kraken and Leviathan: A gigantic Kraken emerges from the Thames and attacks you twice. You need to bring him down with a rocketlauncher.

Left Hanging: The ending of the game is obviously made with a sequel (that will never be) in mind. LeFey's plan to control the monsters is stopped but the Box is destroyed; however Deckard's mark on his arm is the key to build a new one and seal the creatures. He's imprisoned by the Council but he escapes, and while we learn that Vivian isn't dead, Deckard is last seen using a newfound power: taming a Griffon.

Master of Unlocking: Nearly every locked door you need to get by has one control panel near it, and can simply be opened by pushing two wires together.

Lampshaded by an entry in his PDA that states that the control panels are only intimidating, because most do not know how easy it is to pry off the faceplate and rewire the inner workings.

Mêlée à Trois: The game is Council of 98 (including the player) vs. the Black Order vs. the monsters running amok in the world.

Several of the different species of monsters aren't big fans of each other, either. Most obviously, Werewolves and Firedrakes will fight each other if encountered in the same area, and Griffons can be seen eating Werewolves a couple times in the game.

Monumental Damage: Being the epicenter of the monster invasion, the entirety of New York is reduced into a post-apocalyptic wasteland in a few days. You confront a rampaging Golem in Times Square, and before the final assault you can see the head of the Statue of Liberty near Le Fey's building. The English parliament is severely damaged by the attack of the Kraken, and the monster tears down the Big Ben before you confront it. In a cutscene, a Golem can be seen destryoing one of the Egyptian pyramids.

One-Man Army: Lampshaded by LeFey, who, in the final level, states that he either severly underestimated Deckard's skill, or that he should have hired more competent staff.

Our Werewolves Are Different: The werewolves have little fur and look more like huge man-like starving stray dogs. Also, instead of silver bullets, these werewolves only die from decapitation. They're also their own separate species, instead of being transformed humans.

Redshirt Army: 97 members of the Order of the 98, though Lexington's a bit tougher. Also, the NYPD constitute a Redshirt Army.

There Is No Kill Like Overkill: LeFey's death. First an Alpha Werewolf bursts into his room and tosses him around a bit. Then it throws him out a window where he's caught by a passing griffin. That griffin flies him up for a bit until it drops him and he gets impaled on a part of the machine he built which is shooting out loads of electricity from being overloaded. He then falls off the spike, slams off a railing, and falls down the rest of the skyscraper.

The Unfought: Sort of. The Echidna attacks you at least three times during the course of the game, but you only damages its tentacles and never get to see how she looks like.

Unwitting Pawn: Deckard is duped into opening Pandora's Box in the beginning of the game, assuming that the box is simply another expensive and rare artifact that his client would like to put in a private collection.

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